Nigella Lawson lifted the lid on her doomed marriage to Charles Saatchi yesterday – describing him as a bully and a brute.

She accused the hot-tempered art dealer him of launching a witch-hunt and trying to “destroy” her following their divorce earlier this year.

The TV chef, 53, also claimed that the infamous “choking” row they had outside a Mayfair restaurant had nothing to do with her alleged drug-taking – which Saatchi was trying to claim.

She said: “He told everyone that he was taking cocaine out of my nose.

“But what actually happened was that somebody walked by with a very cute baby in a stroller and I said, ‘I am so looking forward to having grand-children’, and he grabbed me by the throat and said, ‘I am the only person you should be concerned with.

"'I am the only person who should be giving you pleasure’. That is what happened.”

Nigella hit back as she gave evidence in the fraud trial of two of her personal assistants at Isleworth crown court in West London.

Trial: Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo the former PAs to Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson (Image: PA)

They claim Nigella allowed them to spend what they liked in return for keeping quiet about her drug use.

Nigella admitted she had snorted cocaine on seven times, but insisted she had never been an addict.

She dismissed Saatchi’s claim that she used the drug daily during their 10-year marriage as “absolutely ridiculous”.

After being reminded she was on oath, she also owned up to secretly smoking cannabis.

She said: “I have to say with some shame that I smoke the odd joint, starting I would say, in the last year of my marriage to Mr Saatchi.

“It made an intolerable situation tolerable and it was a false friend and it is not a good idea.”

She added: “I can say that since freeing myself from a brilliant but brutal man, I am now totally cocaine, cannabis and any drug-free.”

Pausing several times to compose herself, Nigella also revealed she had taking Xanax, a prescription drug for panic attacks – but denied keeping “drawerfuls” of it at her home.

During an impassioned day in the witness box she accused Saatchi of inventing the claims she was a drug addict because he wanted to clear his own name after being pictured trying to throttle her.

She described him as a “very controlling” person prone to occasional foul-mouthed rages.

She claimed on one occasion he “punished” her after she went to a girlfriend’s birthday party.

Nigella added: “I don’t mean I was beaten… emotional abuse doesn’t have scars but it is still very wounding.

"And of course you have seen how things accelerated.”

She said it was like being subjected to a form of “intimate terrorism”.

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Standing up throughout her evidence and gripping the witness box at either side, Nigella said she had turned to drugs after feeling “totally ashamed, isolated and in fear and unhappy”.

She told the court she believes her ex-husband wants to ruin her in any way he can.

She added: “I think he likes everyone to do what he wants.”

Asked by defence lawyer Anthony Metzer if she felt trapped in the marriage, she replied: “I did not say I felt trapped.

“I did say he was a very controlling person. The marriage was difficult at many stages and also deeply happy at some stages.

"That is sometimes the nature of marriage. But this, perhaps, was doomed.”

Accusing Mr Saatchi of a vendetta against her and her two children, she said: “I’m of the opinion that Charles Saatchi will do whatever he can to damage not only my interests, but the interests of my children.”

Dressed in a long black skirt, white collared black blouse and wearing heavy make-up to mask her pale complexion, Nigella told how she had endured months of torment by Saatchi.